LOSTCIRCUITS

ASUS Value Added Features

As listed on the last page, there ar ea number of extra features that come with the ASUS RADEON 9800XT and with that card only. Before going into the software extras, let's take a look at how things are done on the hardware level by ASUS.

           

Left to right: A rather sophisticated dual fan setup allows to provide quiet, yet efficient cooling without the need of sacrificing one PCI slot. The back I/O panel provides a standard VGA out, a DVI and an s-video port to go with that breakout box. At first glance, the back side of the ASUS 9800XT appears rather normal, at close exmination, however it is obvious that there is a RageTheater chip on board. The Theater chip used here is a slightly stripped down version of the one used by the All-In-Wonder cards but it still has some interesting capabilites. Click for larger images.

On the special features side of things ASUS lists a number of very interesting options that, unfortunately, are lost on me (not the fault of ASUS, though).

ASUS Video Security

Among other things, the ASUS RADEON 9800XT can be used for video security, that is, monitoring of a given area using a video capture device such as any CCD camera. The indidividual frames are then analyzed and compared against each other for any disturbances within the scene or a fraction thereof that can be defined by the user by simply drawing a rectangle across what is considered the important area. If relevant changes are detected, the video security feature can send either an email or else use a modem connection to issue a voicemail to any specified phone number. Alternatively, the device can be set to only output a warning .wav file.

The temporal resolution of the recordings will, of course, depend on the frame rte specified, options are 1, 2, 3 or 4 fps. The resulting output files can be archived on the HDD of the system, keep in mind (even though it is self-understood) that the file size will increase with number of frames, and size of the area / resolution monitored.

Overall, there are numerous applications where the VideoSecurity could come in very handy, starting with scientific and engineering applications where certain events need to be triggered by other events and where visual monitoring often enough is the only means of providing the necessary cues. Keep in mind, however, that there are limitations that depend on the capture hardware as well as on some other factors, fast motions, for example may escape detection since they will not result in sufficient change in the monitored area, especially at lower frame rates.

Unfortunately, I don't even have a webcam, not that I have any need for it anyway... if you know what I mean...

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